For years, if you wanted to build something on the internet, you needed a very specific background. People in the tech industry could build websites and products, but only a handful of people had the skills to actually make ideas come to life. I spent a long time being jealous of those people.
One of my favorite things about AI in the last year is how much that’s changed. Anyone can turn an idea into something real now - and it keeps getting easier as the tech gets better.
So, this week, we’re going to build a website with AI!
Before we start: If you are getting this email forwarded to you and are not yet part of the lab - you can join the tiny AI lab here.
The Challenge:
You’re going to build and publish a live website with a live URL that you can share with anyone in your life. No coding background required.
This challenge has a couple more parts than the one before, just to make sure you are building something you like. It will also give you a good idea of how you can work with your preferred AI tool to hash out ideas of things you want to try to build.
Not sure what to build? Here are a few thoughts to get you started:
A page for a side project or business idea you’ve been thinking about
A “hire me” page if you’re freelancing or job searching
A landing page for an event you’re organizing (birthday, dinner, reunion)
A resource page for something you know a lot about that other people might not
A tribute page for your pet or your favorite artist.
The prompt to get you started
This week, we’re using two prompts. The first helps you figure out exactly what you’re building. The second is to get the code and instructions to build it.
Prompt 1: Figure out what you’re making
“I want to build a one-page website about [your idea] but I’m not totally sure how to describe what I’m making yet. Ask me questions, one at a time, to help me get clear on: what the site is and who it’s for, what I want someone to do when they land on it, how I want it to look and feel (colours, vibe, aesthetic), any specific sections or features I want included, and anything else that would help you build something that I like. At the end, give me a product requirement document that I can give you for building the site.”
Answer the questions one by one and at the end you’ll have a PRD (a product requirement document) that captures exactly what you want to build.
Prompt 2: Build and publish it
“Using this product requirement document: [use your PRD from prompt 1], build me a complete one-page website as a single HTML file with all CSS included so I can copy and publish it immediately. Before you give me the code, give me a quick plain-English summary of what you’re building and why you made the design decisions you did. When you’re done with the code, give me step by step instructions of how and where I can publish it for free, e.g. Netlify.”
You’ll get a plain-English explanation of what’s being built and why, the full code, and step-by-step publishing instructions.
Too easy?
Add an interactive game to your site. Try this prompt:
“I want to add a fun interactive element to my website. Look at the topic of my site and suggest 3-5 ideas for a simple game or interactive feature that visitors to my site can engage with. Once I approve the idea, build it into my existing HTML file so everything stays in one place and is fully playable in the browser with no downloads or external links.”
Why this matters?
For most of the history of the internet, only people who could code could participate in building products and publishing them online. If you wanted to build something you needed to find a technical co-founder or hire a developer. Or spend years learning to code yourself.
The gap between “I have an idea” and “I built a thing” was expensive, time-consuming, and for most people just not realistic.
That’s all changing. Low-code tools started chipping away at this, and now AI has blown the door open. Yes, that does mean there’s a lot of AI-slop being created. But it also means that anyone has access to building. A lot of ideas, perspectives, and solutions never made it into the world because the person who had them couldn’t build them. That’s the thing that’s actually shifting right now.
This week’s challenge is a small introduction to that. But if you’ve never built something before, I think you might surprise yourself.
That’s it for this week.
Once you are done, hit reply and send me your website URL. I’d love to hear how the experience was for you. Especially if this was your first time building.
AND….. something new this week: You can now email me at [email protected] if you get stuck, have questions, or suggestions for a challenge.